Settling In
While I am settling into my New Domain, I will be posting various aspects of the progress and highlight some of the changes I am making.Â
Part of the process in moving from one platform to another is finding out where things go. You will probably notice small changes, some of which look out of place.
For those of you who voted on which picture I should use on the Old Blog, I have added them All to the Random Photos Section. Now, it really doesn’t matter, everyone gets the one they voted for.
I am very satisfied with Akismet so far, it has filtered out a lot of Comment Spam (you should see what some of them say).
DavidC mentioned about how the footer had a link that really didn’t belong there, I changed that to the Blog Title, with a Quote temporarily. That may change in the future.
He also told me about problems viewing my Blog in FireFox. I have no idea what it looks like (I use IE6) or how to fix that.Â
I have also added a little bit about myself on the About Page. I even included a picture that a Special Blogger Friend likes. And I put a Contact Link at the Top of the Sidebar. If you need to contact me for anything, or want to suggest a future article, whatever, you can E-Mail me using that Link.
Also, with the “Sand” template, the Links had different categories, which are still on the Main Links page, but will not show up on the New Template. I really liked the way that looked, so I need to find a way to do that with this template.
Another thing that has me baffled is the Pre-Posting feature. I know that it is supposed to work with WordPress, but I’m afraid to try it from the experiences I have had with Blogger and trying to Pre-Post. I have written the Good Reads post already for Sunday, and I used the Edit timestamp to pre-date it, but I don’t know if I should hit Publish. When I did that on Blogger, the article would post right then with a Future date.
Ok, here’s where I ask for any ideas that could help with some of the features and placement of different plug-ins etc.
Thanks,
Joe
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Joe
I would definitely recommend downloading Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/) for reviewing your site. You should be seeing quite a few users coming into your site using Firefox from your log files, for my site it’s over the 50% mark. You would be surprised how many times there is a substantial difference in how your page will render in different browsers, although WordPress should take care of most of that for you. Still, some themes aren’t checked out as well as they could be, and I’ve seen plenty of times when one will completely fall apart in one of the browsers.
We use a service call BrowserCam where I work to check out our site, it allows you to see what your site will look like on a wide variety of browsers, running on a wide variety of platforms. You tell it what browser and OS you want to use, and it visits the web page you’ve entered with the options you’ve selected. It renders the page, then creates an image for you to look at, just like you were sitting in front of that kind of computer using that browser. It’s a great tool, but at $30/month more than I could justify for my blog. I know there was a free rendering tool out there, I looked at it just a couple of weeks ago, but for the life of me I couldn’t find it today. Maybe one of your other readers knows about it.
BTW, I checked out your site with it, and it looks pretty good across platforms. You’ve still got that wrapping issue on your header, ‘Using your computer wisely to…’ wraps underneath the post, but that could just be because I don’t use my browser maximized on my screen….
Input by DavidC | June 29, 2006 @ 4:45 pm
Hey DavidC,
I did change some of the header, now the sub-head is shorter and may look a little better on other browsers.
Chris sent me a screen shot of FireFox and it wrapped round and round. That’s when I changed the sub, it seemed that was the only problem I could see from what he sent.
I am going to try the links you gave me to see how it will look on other apps.
Thanks.
BTW, I have the spam limit at 2 links, that’s why your comment had to wait for moderation.
J.
Input by Joe | June 29, 2006 @ 7:26 pm
Hey DavidC,
I downloaded FireFox and everything except the Sub-header looks just fine.
I did change the length of the sub, but you can’t see the whole thing.
When I refresh the page, the full text of the sub shows until the whole page loads, what’s that about?
Another thing, the background of the center is white on FF, it’s silver (gray) on IE6!?! Only the top of the page keeps it’s original color when in comments.
I don’t have that many (so far) that view with FF to adjust everything, I did run into this before with screen resolution but only 2-4% used low res screens.
Thanks for the tip, and I will look at the overall with different resolutions and browsers, but I am still not sure on how to fix things so that it will look good for everyone.
Joe
os, I am using FF right now and commenting from there. Don’t know what that means, but I do listen when people with more knowledge that I have speak.
J.
Input by Joe | June 29, 2006 @ 8:14 pm
Joe
Every time I come back it’s looking better, your little tweaks are having a real impact! Good job, it’s looking great…
Yeah, that’s the real issue. Some of the stuff you’re talking about will take tweaking the theme itself. If you were using Drupal I could maybe help you out, but I’m just not familiar with WordPress. Your sub header is being rendered first, then your story node is being rendered over the top of it. If you knew where to look you could probably tweak it (make the story start lower on the page, so it wouldn’t cover the sub head) in your CSS file. If I get a chance I’ll take a look at it and see if I can give you an idea on where to start.
Keep pluggin’ away, it’s looking good….
Input by DavidC | June 29, 2006 @ 9:10 pm
Hey DavidC,
Thanks again for the compliment, I figure, if it doesn’t look good to me, it won’t look good to someone else.
I did learn a little about changing code while using Blogger. Hopefully, I can apply that to the new platform to make this a Happy Place.
As I just told Cat on another comment, any help is much appreciated.
Joe
Input by Joe | June 29, 2006 @ 9:31 pm
Joe ~ just found your blog and it looks great ~ I agree SPAM is a headache glad it’s slowing up for you and your transition from Blogger looks pretty smooth! I’ve subscribed so you will hear from me again.
Tammy
Input by Tammy | July 3, 2006 @ 9:13 pm
Hey Tammy,
Thanks and welcome to the neighborhood. I appreciate you wanting to be part of my little community.
The only SPAM I ever liked was in the Monty Python Skit, I don’t know if you are a fan, but it is funny.
Otherwise, SPAM is my nemisis…
Thanks again for stopping by, and I hope to be hearing from you again soon.
Joe
PS Stop by Liz’s tomorrow night for Open Comment Night, it’s a blast.
J.
Input by Joe | July 3, 2006 @ 10:23 pm